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Daily Digest

$14 Million Permit Filed for MED’s Turner Tower

Capital improvements to The Regional Medical Center at Memphis’ Turner Tower are moving forward, with a $14 million permit application recently filed for renovations to the building.

The application, filed with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement, calls for 75,000 square feet of renovation work and interior demolition in the tower, which is on The MED’s campus at 877 Jefferson Ave.

The Turner Tower improvements, which are being completed in phases, include expanding and refurbishing the Firefighters Regional Burn Center and building out three vacant floors to relocate the inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital, a new Outpatient Ambulatory Surgery suite and new acute-care patient rooms.

Flintco Inc. is the contractor for the project, which includes more than 88,000 square feet and is expected to be finished in December.

Rick Wagers, The MED’s chief financial officer, recently told The Daily News that the hospital “would like to … replace the vast majority of our campus over a five- to 10-year period in order to make it more patient- and family-friendly.”

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Former Interim Mayor Joe Ford Arrested

Former interim Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford was arrested Tuesday, Feb. 5, by Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies after a liquor store owner swore out a warrant saying Ford had not paid a $1,301 bill from July.

Ford was arrested at his home Tuesday morning on a charge of passing a bad check and theft of property.

The manager of Lauderdale Liquors claims Ford wrote a check on his funeral home business account for $1,301 and the check bounced a month later with Ford ignoring several attempts by the business to collect.

Sheriff’s office detectives contacted Ford last month about the complaint and according to the Sheriff’s office, Ford said he would resolve the matter but did not.

Ford, a former Memphis City Council member and Shelby County Commissioner, was arrested on a similar warrant in September 2011 for theft over a bounced check for two Rolex watches he bought at Las Savell Jewelers. Ford and the business owner later resolved the dispute and the charge was withdrawn.

– Bill Dries

FTN Financial Adds Public Finance Department

FTN Financial Capital Markets, a division of First Tennessee Bank, is expanding in the general market municipal bond sector with the addition of a public finance department.

FTN began expanding its role with the addition of a dedicated municipal sales group in 2012. The company says the establishment of the public finance department complements FTN’s municipal trading and competitive underwriting capabilities.

To date, offices have been opened in San Antonio and Austin as part of the expansion. Rogelio Rodriguez and Don Henderson have joined FTN’s public finance team, and they will focus on negotiated municipal bond transactions.

FTN also has added Josh Mulholland to its dedicated municipal bond sales team. Mulholland brings more than 20 years of institutional municipal sales experience to the company.

– Andy Meek

New Pinnacle Chief Operating Officer has Delta Connections

The new chief operating officer of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. and the last COO for the regional air carrier while it is located in Memphis is a former chief operations officer of Delta Private Jets and former president of Comair.

Ryan Gumm was named to the Pinnacle position Monday, Feb. 4, effective the following day.

The company also announced Gumm will become president and chief executive officer of Pinnacle once Pinnacle emerges from bankruptcy. Current CEO John Spanjers will retire at that time.

Gumm’s Delta connections are another indication of Delta’s intentions to acquire Pinnacle once it emerges from bankruptcy.

Comair was the wholly owned regional air carrier that Delta executives announced they would shut down this past July.

Pinnacle executives announced in January they would move their headquarters from One Commerce Square in Memphis to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by May in vacant space that is leased by Delta Air Lines.

Founded in 1994, International Sourcing imports and distributes safety products to distributors and retailers nationwide.

Varma Family LP last March bought 4025 Viscount and 2063 Viscount – more than 1 million square feet of warehouse space formerly occupied by Cleo Inc. gift-wrapping company in Airport Industrial Park Section A – from Corporate Property Associates 4 for $2.6 million.

Varma Family LP in September 2011 bought a 14.4-acre site with an 141,134-square-foot existing building at 2085 W.E. Freeman Drive in Memphis Defense Depot from The Depot Redevelopment Corp. of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, for $1.1 million.